Unable to determine major/minor number of root device - cant boot!

WulfgarPro · 2011-03-12 03:17:30

Hi,

After a recent system upgrade (pacman -Syu), my system is not booting.

Error:

:: Loading Initramfs
:: Starting udevd...
udev[37]: starting version 166
done.
:: Running Hook [udev]
:: Triggering uevents...done.
Waiting 10 seconds for device /dev/sda3/ ...
Root device '/dev/sda3/' doesn't exist. Attempting to create it.
ERROR: Unable to determine major/minor number of root device '/dev/sda3'.
You are being dropped to a recover shell
...

I've read through a plethora of posts in these forums where the OP describes the same symptoms.. but still no luck. Using my Arch live-cd I've managed to mount my root partition, /dev/sda3, which is of type ext4, for chroot(ing).

My /etc/fstab reads like so:

/dev/sda4 /home ext4 defaults 0 1
/dev/sda2 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sda3 / ext4 defaults 0 1
/dev/sda1 /boot ext2 defaults 0 1

These were originally defined using UUID strings, I have simply commented these out as per a possible fix described within these forums.

My grub/menu.lst is on my boot partition /dev/sda1 and reads like so:

# (0) Arch Linux
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda3 rootfstype=ext4
initrd /kernel26.img

Originally root was defined using /dev/disk/by-uuid/...; I manually defined the direct partition and its fs type as per another possible fix described within these forums.

My /etc/mkinitcpio.conf reads like so:

MODULES=""
BINARIES=""
FILES=""
HOOKS="base udev pata scsi sata filesystems"

The HOOKS line originally contained the autodetect element which (again) I removed as per a possible fix.

Rebuilding my kernel image like so:

mkinitcpio -p kernel26

complained with: 'ERROR: unknown type 'data' for binary '/sbin/blkid' ', but still successfully built the image. After rebooting I'm still recieving the original error.

Does anyone know what the actual problem is? Does anyone know how I can fix this without rebuilding my machine?

WulfgarPro

Last edited by WulfgarPro (2011-03-12 22:46:18)

stryder · 2011-03-12 12:35:04

You should use uuid in your menu.lst, something like:

kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/uuid-of-dev-sda3

(and hopefully /vmlinux26 is a typo here and not in your menu.lst)

WulfgarPro · 2011-03-12 22:31:25

Yes sorry, that was a spelling mistake. I have fixed it in the above post. I have made the change back to using uuid.. to no avail.

No other ideas :S?

WulfgarPro

bohoomil · 2011-03-14 00:24:52

As I mentioned somewhere else, one can always try reinstalling the kernel, which sometimes may behave odd... (This will automatically regenerate the initrd as well, which may lack certain module(s) and thus can't load the kernel.) That's how I managed to overcome booting issues resulting in very similar output.

Last edited by bohoomil (2011-03-14 00:25:49)

rwd · 2011-03-14 22:17:00

See here for how to rebuild the current kernel, or downgrade to the previous one using the arch live cd:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Kernel_Panics

newbie55 · 2011-09-17 23:50:59

Was this ever resolved? I'm having the same problem.

karol · 2011-09-18 00:06:06

newbie55 wrote:

Was this ever resolved? I'm having the same problem.

Just to make sure, are you having problems after running 'pacman -Syu', after a regular update?

falconindy · 2011-09-18 00:40:25

Many things in this post are out of date, and most of these posts (there are tons of them) are a result of user error.

Daerun · 2011-09-18 10:12:54

I experienced this same problem when adding a hd to my secondary IDE. Removing the hd made everything work fine...

bernarcher · 2011-09-18 10:39:26

falconindy wrote:

Many things in this post are out of date, and most of these posts (there are tons of them) are a result of user error.

So it is.
Please do not post merely "me too"s. Open a new thread if there are serious new questions.

Closing this one.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-03-12 03:17:30

Unable to determine major/minor number of root device - cant boot!

#2 2011-03-12 12:35:04

Re: Unable to determine major/minor number of root device - cant boot!

#3 2011-03-12 22:31:25

Re: Unable to determine major/minor number of root device - cant boot!

#4 2011-03-14 00:24:52

Re: Unable to determine major/minor number of root device - cant boot!

#5 2011-03-14 22:17:00

Re: Unable to determine major/minor number of root device - cant boot!

#6 2011-09-17 23:50:59

Re: Unable to determine major/minor number of root device - cant boot!

#7 2011-09-18 00:06:06

Re: Unable to determine major/minor number of root device - cant boot!

#8 2011-09-18 00:40:25

Re: Unable to determine major/minor number of root device - cant boot!

#9 2011-09-18 10:12:54

Re: Unable to determine major/minor number of root device - cant boot!

#10 2011-09-18 10:39:26

Re: Unable to determine major/minor number of root device - cant boot!

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